In recent years, the resources dedicated to disaster preparedness and response have increased significantly. One key aspect of emergency and disaster management involves being able to provide up to date, accurate information to people such that the information is actionable. Typical methods for providing information to large populations include radio and television broadcasts, updates to internet sites, and generic text-based messages.
Conventional messaging systems, however, are triggered by known or commonly encountered events such that the recipient can either anticipate the event (e.g., a late flight arrival) or the instructions for responding to the event are not specific to the individual (e.g., taking an alternate route when a current route is congested). Such generic messages are not, however, adequate for providing actionable instructions to a diverse audience of recipients regarding how to respond to catastrophic events.
There is, therefore, a need for methods and systems for providing customized, actionable messages to individuals and/or devices based on the occurrence of a catastrophic event based on attributes of the device, the event, and the recipient, which may or may not be known prior to the occurrence of the event.